Fake booze, cigars flooding country as Tet nears

Market surveillance personnel inspect bottles of smuggled alcohol before destroying them in a busted case taking place in the southern province of Binh Duong. (Photo: VNA)

Hanoi (VNA) - The
crackdown on counterfeit and smuggled wines and cigars has tightened as the Tet
holiday approaches. However, it seems that the fight has not been effective,
with many consumers still wary when shopping for goods at markets in Hanoi.

Minh Truong, a resident in Hanoi’s Hoan Kiem district, said that he struggled
to buy foreign wines.

Truong once bought a fake bottle of wine sold at a liquor shop even though he
checked the wine carefully.

“It is quite difficult to distinguish between fake and authentic products as
the bottle, label and even the colour of fake wine look identical to the real
one,” he said.

Quynh Huong, another consumer in Hoan Kiem district, said that she no longer
trusted the liquor stores in town. She usually bought wine from friends who
travelled abroad.

“I can’t tell if a bottle of wine is real or fake, so I’d rather not buy it
here,” she said.

Under current regulations, alcohol that is not correctly labelled with import
stamps will be classified as counterfeit. However, it’s likely that even
certification stamps can not guarantee genuine products.

Pham Ngoc Hung, vice chairman of the Vietnam Anti-Counterfeiting Fund, told the
Lao dong (Labour) newspaper that there were many tricks used to make counterfeit
wines look like those from famous brands. Violators could substitute
poor-quality alcohol into a used bottle of wine to trick consumers, or fake the
bottle, cork, labelling and even certification stamps to sell the product.

Hung said it was challenging for consumers to tell the difference between fake
and real products at a glance and they could easily be cheated.

Recently, many cases of fake imported alcohol have been discovered.

Last October, more than 300 bottles of wine lacking clear origins were seized
when they were transported to the central province of Thanh Hoa for
consumption.

On the same month, city police, in co-operation with police in Hai Phong City
and Thanh Hoa and Nghe An provinces seized nearly 5,000 bottles of fake
alcohol, which was a mixture of imported and domestic wine and labelled with
false certification stamps. The bottles were made to look like well-known
brands from Germany, Australia, Scotland and the US.

Last year, stories about the production of fake imported wine in Long Biên
district’s Nguyen Son street were published in local press. In shining a light
on the manufacture and trade of fake alcohol, consumers began to question the
quality of imported wines sold at the city’s markets.

Meanwhile, the crackdown on such fake products seems to have had little effect.

Figures from the city’s Market Watch showed that inspectors made raids in 60
cases of trading and importing wines. Of that, 48 cases faced fines of over 157
million VND (6,908 USD) and 210 bottles, or 2,203 litres of alcohol, was
seized.

Dr Nguyen Trung Nguyen of Hanoi’s Bach Mai Hospital said that cases of alcohol
poisoning increased remarkably before and after Tet. The reason was the
increased consumption of fake alcohol.

Imported cigars are among luxury goods purchased for the Tet holiday. Although
selling this kind of product requires strict business conditions, they have
been found at many stores in the city.

Quang Anh, a cigar smoker, said that he was surprised to find many rare and
expensive types of cigars being sold at numerous stores in the city.

Cohiba Behike cigars are one example. The limited and luxurious cigars are
normally sold at about 1,500 USD per box, but they have been advertised at just
5 million - 6 million VND (220-264 USD) per box in Hanoi.

Duy Sang, another cigar smoker, said that cigars were advertised as imported
from Cuba or Europe, but sellers failed to show any papers to prove their
origin.

Last year, the Ministry of Finance tightened regulations on importing cigars to
Vietnam, in which a person could only carry 20 cigars when entering Vietnam,
instead of 100 cigars as previously.

Last November, the city’s inspectors seized 389 cigars sold at a shop on Trung
Kinh street as the shop owner failed to show the required papers.

Currently, Vietnam National Tobacco Corporation is the only unit allowed to
import and distribute cigars in Vietnam.

A representative from the city’s Market Watch’s Unit 1 said that they would
continue to investigate shops selling cigars in the city and deter violations.-VNA